Exercise : Highlight clipping.

 Outline: Using a scene with plenty of contrast and an auto setting with exposure adjustment, make a series of photographs, adjusting the exposure setting to alter the area of highlight clipping.


I took my series of photos in the garden on a cloudy afternoon. The sky being overcast with white clouds would prove a decent experiment for the highlight clipping exercise. I searched the menu of my camera but unfortunately my camera does not have a highlight clipping warning, so I shot the images anyway in RAW and then used the highlight clipping warning in photoshop to complete the exercise as best I could.

I set the camera to auto setting where I could adjust the exposure and the aperture was set to F5 and the shutter speed was set to 1/30. I used the auto ISO setting.

The first image without adjusting the exposure:

Even by looking at this image here, we can see that the sky in the image is completely white. The garage roof and the childrens play house are both white also, but here we can see a distinction between each of these details and the whiteness of the sky. There is a definite outline to where these subjects end and where the clouds begin. With the highlight clipping visible:

We can see the sky is completely highlighted with it being washed out. There is even warning on the top level of the childrens slide. The sky has no different levels of colour at all, it purely shows that all colour and visible information has been lost. The garage roof has also lost information but here we have a break that can be seen between where the colour has been lost and the actual white colour of the guttering.

By increasing the exposure by 1 fstop, we can lose even more information.

I notice by this image that the visible break between the garage roof / play house and the sky has pretty much disappeared. The shed roof still has some colour but this is also a lot whiter than in the previous image. This is worth mentioning as a visible break between white and nearly white.

The highlight clipping warning emphasizes these issues, showing more colour being washed out on the garage and play house. The slide is almost all washed out here and we have even lost information in some of the plants. The shed roof still has colour showing there is still a visible break between it and the sky.

However, just by decreasing the original image by 1 fstop we can see a huge difference.

The sky in this image does not appear to be white anymore, more of an 'off white' colour. There is a grey colour cast along the roof of the garage, showing a shadow and therefore, extra detail to differentiate between the garage roof white and the cloud in the sky. There seems to be a lot more detail through shadows in this image however, the colour saturation still shows no detailing through the sky. But then if we were to amend the image as a whole to highlight the detailing in the clouds, I am sure detail through other areas would be compromised.

With the highlight clipping warning on, we see that there are no areas of lost information in this image.

Going back to the original image and using the recovery tool, I moved the slider to the right and noticed a significant change with the recovery at '20'.

Here, we see that almost all the information has now been restored to the sky and we only have slight clipping warnings along the edges of the subjects against the sky. By the time the slider reached '26', all the highlight clipping warnings had disappeared.

I did experiment with the slider but after slider got to '26' (above), there was no change to the image at all no matter how far to the left I moved the slider.

Conclusion: This was a very interesting and necessary exercise to explore the highlight clipping facility and after all the evidence shown through using the highlight clipping warning in photoshop, I'm slightly disappointed that my camera does not have this facility built in. However, looking at the images above, I much prefer the image where the exposure was decreased by 1 fstop compared to the 'recovered' original image. I feel there is more detail available in that image and with more shadows it gives the image more of a 'cloudy/overcast' feel to it.

Middle finger news - The Defiled fan site inclusion.

Wow! I have just been made aware that the photos that I submitted for assignment 1, as well as a few others, have been included on the fan website 'Middle Finger News' for the band that was photographed 'The Defiled'.
Each photo has been tagged with my copyright as well and I can say that I'm very happy :)

If anyone wishes to have a look for themselves, they can be found here.

HAPPY! :)

Exercise: Sensor Linear Capture.

Outline: Simulate a linear image quite simply by applying the opposite type of curve.

The image below is a jpeg from a recent trip on a nice sunny afternoon with plenty of lighting.

After loading up Elements i noticed that there was no option to convert the image from or to 16 bits. I think that it was already set at 16 bits as the link to alter it to 8 bits was unavailable...

So heading into the next task, I then noticed that by going into 'Image' there was no 'adjustments' option and no visible 'curves' option but after a bit of searching I found the option to adjust colour curves.

So using this option, I screen printed the image as it starts, showing the histogram with the points stretched over the whole graph.

I then altered the curve to one similar to that shown in the diagram...

This screen shot shows the before and after image with the curve I have created. I then saved the linear image and took a screen shot of the new histogram.

As noted in the exercise, the tonal values have now squashed over to the right compared to the original image.

I then altered this darker, linear image and amended the curve to that of the gamma correction curve in the example.

We now have an image of the two pictures, the dark linear one and the lightened one.  The shadows have been lightened, as have the highlights.

Here is the final, re lightened image with the histogram showing the tonal values leveled out again. This image still differs from the original with a smaller difference between the highlight and shadowed areas than in the original. The tonal values in the histogram are a lot lower and flatter than in the original as well. 

Conclusion: The ability to alter the curves has a dramatic effect on the image and the exercise has given a good insight into what the camera's processor does to the image once it has been captured. 

Inspiration.

So, the first assignment has been completed and I can say I'm very happy with it. I know I've said it before but I'm really taking a huge liking to 'gig' photography. It's truly a case of practice makes perfect but I get such a sense of achievement when I pull off some decents shots, especially with the challenges of bad lighting etc.
I have recently come across two photographers who are exceptional in this field in my opinion.
They are Scott Chalmers and Fiaz Farrelly.
These guys take some amazing photographs in the music and gig field and I get great inspiration from them to achieve the images that I aim to get.

I'm looking to start on the next chapter of this course now and am looking forward to receiving tutor feedback for this first assignment.

Assignment 1 - Workflow.

I have had a good think about what subject I would like to use for this first assignment. My two main hobbies are photography and music and so I love being able to combine the two. I have two gig's coming up in the next few weeks and think I would like to use one of those for this first assignment.
At this moment, I can produce an advance workflow for going into this assignment and then I will complete any amendments and comments at the time of shooting and record them.

WORKFLOW


For starters, I will not be able to take my DSLR camera into the gig venue so therefore I will be using my compact camera. This will eliminate the need to charge my camera battery and sort any lenses but in preparation I will still need to check that I have enough space on my memory card and that I have replacement AA batteries just in case.
I will also not require my tripod due to the nature of the event. I will be photographing from the crowd and therefore unable to use a tripod but I am aware that the low lighting will be an issue and my compact camera does not have the ability to amend an ISO setting, so this will be a challenge to face at arrival at the venue.

I will be hoping to get a good spot at the front of the crowd to be able to get some good performance shots of the band. If at all possible, I'd like to be able to move about to at least three different positions/camera angles of the stage but depending on the volume of other attendees, I predict this will be highly unlikely. So I hope to arrive early enough to get a decent enough spot to be able to at least overview the whole stage area.

I will still have to adjust my camera settings, even though i'm only using my compact camera. I can still adjust the aperture/shutter speed or depending on the shooting conditions, I can shoot manual. I wont be able to use my flash so I will have to just be prepared to decide the best option when I get there.

This is obviously a timed shoot as I will be trying to get the best possible shots of the entire gig in the time the gig is on, so I really need to be able to capture the essence of the band and the atmosphere within that time scale through poses, expression and crowd participation. I am there to enjoy the music as well so I don't intend on taking pictures all night. I plan on making use of the 3 song rule for myself to see if I can capture what I need in that time scale but I can adjust accordingly. During shooting I would also need to check my histogram and use on the spot development to negotiate a change in any settings etc due to possible lighting changes.

Following the gig, I will be uploading all images from my memory card to photoshop elements to evaluate the images in a separate selection process.
Here, I will be using the five step process of refinement to narrow down my images, taking out noticeably unusable images immediately and then producing the best 6-12 images as my final choices. Along the way I will be labeling my selection choices for each step.

I will then save all my images and selection processes to my external hard drive and exhibit my final choices in an online web gallery for assessment.

I now have a couple of weeks until the gig so I will continue with the course during this time and will come back to this assignment then.

GIG SHOOT
In practice the shoot pretty much followed to the advance workflow.
On arriving at the venue, the lighting was a lot worse than I had originally expected and so even after altering my shutter speed/ aperture, the lighting was just too dim and therefore the best option was to use both the auto setting and the auto scene recognition settings. I was also able to use my flash after all so that was a another amendment to the original workflow.
I originally stated that I wanted to possibly move about to a number of positions but in practice, this was not possible. The venue was very small and without an actual 'stage' , so the gig was very intimate but also very crowded and there was no possibility of moving to shoot at different angles.
The gig lasted for about an hour for the main band so this was my shooting time. I took a wide variety of photographs during this time including different band members, poses and member positioning. I also used on the spot development to check images taken to keep tabs on my progress.

Following the gig, all photos were uploaded to photoshop elements to start the selection process and to evaluate the most appropriate images for editing. I have listed each process of selection below:

All images

I had a large selection of images to work with, therefore I uploaded them all to photoshop elements and then sorted through them, taking out all the immediate unworkable ones (see below).

Technical edit

Removing all the above images left me with the task of looking through the rest a bit closer and then picking out my 'selects' which are the ones I am most happy with. These start a group of images that I continued to narrow down to the final images I would use to represent the gig.

Selects

With my group of selects I had a lot that looked the same and a lot of one band member so I then made my selection of 'first selects'.

First Selects

Again, I still had a lot of the same poses, etc but I managed to go back through and review these selects again  to choose my final favourite photographs of the night.

Group and Review

I decided at this stage to start editing all of the above images, as I wanted to include all of these in my personal portfolio, and then I would go about choosing my final edits afterwards. With the music being heavy rock, I wanted to edit the images so that the final result would reflect the genre of the music. I edited each photo in PICNIK as it has some great effects including sepia, grayscale, vignette, cross process and a number of others that I chose to use. The final images all have a selection of these effects to enhance the theme I was wanting to create. After looking through these edited images I decided on my final images.

Final Images

I have displayed these final edited images in a web gallery. This can be found here:

Workflow web gallery

I am extremely happy with my final choices and the final edits of these images. I have a real passion for photographing music events, due to the fact that I am joining two of my greatest passions. I think that the essence of the gig has really been captured through these images and that is what I was trying to do.

Exercise: Editing

Outline: Use a set of recently shot images and follow the steps given in time sequence. The steps are:

• The technical edit
• The selects
• The first selects
• Group and review
• A final choice

I have decided to use the images from the first exercise (your own workflow 1) for this exercise. 

I took a large volume of photos for the shoot and uploaded them to photoshop elements organiser.

The images -

These were the first page full of images that I uploaded. I took in the region of about 250 images in a half hour session. At first glance there were a lot that were immediately noticeable as no good, including lighting test shots.


The technical edit - 

These images were the first lot I decided to cull out of the main bulk of images. As you can see from this first page, above, they were mainly lighting issues where the shots were over or under exposed, where the shots were blurry due to my shutter speed being too slow or simply where the model is moving or blinking/laughing.

The selects - 

I then had a good look through all the remaining images and decided on the shots with the poses I had visualized. As you can see, there were some images that were the same except for slight alterations, like camera angle or focal length. I included all these in my 'selects' so that I could differentiate between them later.

The first selects - 

After MUCH deliberation, I settled on the above images as my 'first selects'. Again, I included two images the same but with different focal lengths, as I still wasn't sure which one I wanted. I converted the wide angle shot (the first shown here) into black and white to help to decide between that and the next image. The third image was one of the only images I shot at this camera angle and I like this as I am level to the model, emphasizing him over the graffiti, but also as I am lower and looking up at him slightly, It makes him fill the frame and look larger through perspective. These were the only three I really liked out of the first 'location' on the shoot. The graffiti was mainly oranges and I preferred the second 'location' as I felt the colouring worked better visually in the images, possibly due to the colours highlighting the models clothing.  The fourth image I felt was a lot more natural looking than the rest and I wanted to include this for that reason. The highlight clipping would've kicked in on the wall in the background, but that could be altered in processing. Images five and six I felt really give good emphasis on the graffiti without taking from the model. I like the poses and the facial expressions as well as his position against the graffiti. Seven and eight really emphasize the model. I liked the fact the camera angle was tilted in seven and again was more relaxed, but it wasn't too similar to image four so that it still seemed to be a completely different image. Eight is a classic head shot and I liked the angle of the models head and the camera angle making lovely diagonal lines through the image. You will see that this one image is over exposed. I had a selection throughout this process that were overexposed, due to using a flashgun, but I really liked the images so decided to keep them in the selection as I could always alter them during processing.The final two I loved because I I found it less 'norm' having the model looking in the complete opposite direction. Also the camera angle was quirky to highlight both the model and the graffiti. All of these images were pure personal choice, narrowing down simply to angles, facial expressions, poses and focal length.

Group and review - 


So, originally I was happy with the images I had chosen. But a day later, I had another good look through all my images and decided to add a few more for this selection.

I added an extra five images to this selection that you can see here in the bottom row of images. All very similar to the ones I had already selected but again with a few alterations to poses and camera angles. I was now happy with this selection.

A final choice - 


This bit was not easy. I wanted to include them all and here is where I probably would have processed them all and then chosen, after adding fancy filters, etc. Eventually I got down to the final two.

These are my final choices. I decided I wanted a head/shoulders shot to focus on the model and then a full length which highlighted the graffiti as well.

 Of all the images, I really like this image of the model. A strong close up of his face but still quirky enough with his head to the side. I though the composition was probably better in this than any other close up one and I love how the line of his shoulder is not only emphasized by the graffiti line behind him but also continues up through his face by his beard. The graffiti is still visible here but is not the main focus of the image.

After processing

My second image shows off the graffiti really well. I like the diagonal lines again in this image and the low camera angle making the wall seem as though it goes on and on. The model being at the front of the image and filling the frame shows his dominance in the image but I don't feel that he in any way takes away from the art on the wall.

After processing  

Conclusion - 
I found this exercise brilliant. It really focuses on enhancing your personal creative side and the procedure of using the steps is great to avoid being completely overwhelmed when taking a high volume of images. 

Exercise: Histogram

Outline: Increase your familiarity with histograms by relating each one to the image you have shot. Take and image of a low contrast scene, one of a mid contrast scene and one of a high contrast scene and for each one, take another two images varying the exposure. Write a short note for each image and histogram combination explaining how they relate.

I will hold my hands up on this exercise and say I messed it up pretty much from the start. I had set my camera setting, unknowingly, to shoot RAW, but not with the jpeg image aswell and then due to a distraction I only took images of each contrast on the level exposure setting. Seeming as I have been confused about histograms up until now, I really wanted to get a good grip with this exercise and thought, due to my mistake, that I would be worse off. BUT....

I actually understand them now.

I tried to set up my canon 1000D to show the histogram at the time but for some reason, it wont actually show it (I'm also having the same trouble with the live LCD shooting!). I uploaded all the images to elements organizer and as I have shot them all in RAW, I have the exposure slider as well. So with a lot of fiddling about, not only can I see and record the effects by altering the exposure slider, I have also really understood the theory behind the histogram.

As for the exercise:

This image of a garden playhouse shows very low contrast. The values for this image, as shown in the histogram are all bunched up in the centre of the column graph. This confirms the lack of shadow and depth, creating a flat image.

The over exposed image shows how the bunched up values moves across to the right..... 

...and the underexposed image shows the values move across to the left. 

As there are no shadows or bright areas in these images, the shadow and highlight warnings have not shown here with any areas of concern.

The above image has a medium contrast. The shadow warning has picked up the dark areas between the leaves on the bushes, indicating the shadow as being the darkest level that the camera can manage, with it already showing as black and cannot appear to be any darker.

In the over exposed image, the histogram shows the values heading more to the right side of the graph (white). The highlight clipping (the red area) shows us that the colour has been lost here as the brightness level is too high for the camera to record any data, and the area will appear as white.

This street scene on a cloudy day has a high contrast, with areas of bright reflection and also some shadow. The histogram shows the values really spread out, right up to the edges of the graph on both sides. 

Highlight clipping has indicted a few small areas where the brightness is too high, but this can be amended by altering the exposure f-stop.

 The over exposed image shows that most of the light coloured surfaces have now been affected by the highlight clipping, showing any colour that was actually visible in these ares has now been completely burnt out and made to look white.

The underexposed image is the better of the three here. The histogram is a lot more leveled out and the highlight clipping has disappeared because now there is enough darkness in the image to show some colour. 












Conclusion:  I have a much better knowledge of histograms and shadow and highlight warnings from this exercise. The final image of this exercise shows exactly what the highlight clipping does and how it warns you that vital image detail can be lost due to incorrect exposure. And that the histogram is actually a great tool to have ( if it actually can be used on the camera) to assist in creating the ideal exposure at the time of shooting.